Blizzard of 1985.

All these news stories of the extreme winters and snow has brought up memories of living in Minot  ND for 10 years. I have a lot of memories of our Minot winters but one in particular stands out. 

 It was a year after Jeff and I were married and let’s just say, it was a big test of our newly formed marriage!

It was winter of 1985. We were living on Minot AFB, which is about 12 miles from the town. The highway between the base and town is very open and flat. When it snows, and the wind picks up it becomes impossible to drive the stretch of road.  It was Saturday and Jeff had weekend duty, working on the flight line in the subzero temperatures.  He was supposed to be off early because we had a wedding in town we were to be in.   As the day went on, it started to snow. The weather was rapidly declining, and Jeff still wasn’t home.  The later it got, the more nervous I became, knowing the roads were getting bad.

Jeff finally got home from work and we had a very quick “discussion” about trying to make it to the wedding. Jeff wanted to stay home, partially because he was frozen from working in the cold all day and because by this point we had blizzard warnings. But I insisted we HAD to go, we were in the wedding!  He changed into his tuxedo then went out to warm up the car, only it wouldn’t start, the engine was frozen.  I went out early in the day and forgot to plug it back in (yes we had to plug our cars in).   Which meant we had to drive his car, which really was only meant to drive on the base. It was not what you would call road worthy.  Once again, we had a “discussion” about going and once again I was insistent.  

We drove very slowly into town, all the while the snow was falling, and the wind was whipping.  We finally arrived at the church, just in time to stand in the back and see the end of the ceremony. We didn’t make it in time. I felt awful and wanted to stay at the reception for a few minutes,  but this time Jeff was insistent we needed to leave immediately to get home. 

Now it was full on blizzard. We really could not see a thing!  I tried to convince Jeff to turn around and we could stay in town but at this point there was no talking him out of driving home. The drive home was slow and very nerve wracking, I  don’t know how we didn’t end up in the ditch, but we managed to make our way every so slowly down that highway home. 

After a long stressful drive, we finally made it to the turn off for the front gate.   We could not see the guard shack because of the blowing snow but we could see the light so we knew we were almost home!  As we approached the gate a military police peeked out of the guard building, he looked like he saw a ghost. He came to the car and said," I didn’t expect to see anyone out here tonight!  What on earth are you doing out on these roads!" Then he asked to see our ID cards, well guess what I forgot! Ghost or no ghost, you must have an ID card to get on base. No ID card meant we had to go to the visitor center, so Jeff could vouch me on.  We drudged through above knee high snow drifts, freezing cold wind whipping through us as we made our way to the building.   Jeff in his tuxedo, and dress shoes. Me in my formal long dress. 

By this point, Jeff was at his max peak of being peeved with me! I wonder if a part of him wanted to leave me at the gate!  

We did make it home to our little mobile home.  But guess who forgot the key? We were locked out.  Jeff had to tromp through the deep snow drifts to get to the back door which he then proceeded to break down. I’m not sure it took much, all that saved up anger aided in that! We were cold, wet and tired.  THEN the final straw. To top off the very long, cold, wet, miserable day, our sewer pipes froze!  Do you know how you thaw frozen sewer pipes in a mobile home? You cut them off and bring them inside the house to thaw!  YEP !  That was one for the books for sure!   It’s a miracle our marriage lasted that weekend!!!